Engaging Youth Voices To Create Supportive School Environments For Healthy Eating And Physical Activity

Background: The Students As LifeStyle Activists (SALSA) Program is an effective Australian peer-led leadership program offered to high schools. SALSA Youth Voices (SYV) is a novel extension of the SALSA program, providing SALSA Peer Leaders with an opportunity to further develop leadership skills, and to design and implement an intervention to promote healthy eating and physical activity within their school. The objectives of this study were to 1) measure the acceptability of the SYV program, 2) determine skills gained by peer leaders from participating in SYV, and 3) determine whether peer leaders successfully implemented a student-designed healthy eating/physical activity intervention. Methods: Schools which participated in the SALSA program in 2019 were invited to a Leadership Day workshop (Term 3) where SALSA Peer Leaders identified and planned an activity to promote healthy eating and/or physical activity at their school, and an Action Day (Term 4) where peer leaders presented their interventions to 100 health and education professionals. Peer leaders completed two brief online surveys at the end of the Leadership Day and upon registration at the Action Day. Results: Eighty-four peer leaders (aged 14–15 years) from seven high schools in western Sydney (mean Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) = 951) participated in SYV. Peer leaders reported their involvement with the SYV program as positive, with 68% rating it as “very valuable”. Skills gained by the peer leaders included teamwork (90%), communication (85%), leadership (77%) and confidence (65%). Peer leaders planned and devised interventions included installing water refill stations, improving school gyms, redesigning girls’ sports shorts, and other strategies to engage girls in physical activity. Most peer leaders reported their intervention was successfully implemented and sustainable in their school. Conclusions: SYV provides a unique leadership opportunity for students from socio-economically disadvantaged areas to be effective agents of change to create opportunities for students to participate in physical activity and improve healthy food options at school.

Gene-Environment Causal Pathway to Impoverished Cognitive Development Contributes to Psychotic-Like Experience in Children

Identifying the social and biological mechanisms of cognitive and psychological development of children is essential for optimizing preventive and educational efforts. However, the causal pathways by which genetic and environmental factors affect cognitive and psychiatric outcomes remain unknown, especially in early childhood. We examined the causal relationships among genes, the environment, intelligence, and psychotic-like experiences in 7,632 multiethnic (5,905 with European ancestry) children aged 9-10 years old from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. Using up-to-date computational causal analysis and rigorous path modeling, we found a significant causal influence of residential, family, and school environments and genome-wide polygenic scores of cognitive capacities on preadolescents' psychotic-like experiences mediated by intelligence. Mitigation of good parenting behavior and positive school environments on psychotic-like experiences dominated the pernicious effects of genetic and residential adversities. Our findings support that intelligence may be a biological resilience factor for psychosis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to identify casual trajectories of neurocognitive development in early childhood and the first to provide empirical evidence that positive parenting behavior and school environment can impose a considerable degree of causal impact on children's cognitive and psychiatric outcomes. We suggest the implementation of socioeconomic policies to improve family and school environments and promote local economic development to enhance children's cognitive ability and mental health.

Pedagogy around graffiti

In this article graffiti is perceived as the art of living with images operated by young artists. The author draws attention to the fact that this art does not only have a negative perception of character, and thus also a social perception (reception). There is explained what the polarization effect of two neighboring generations of graffiti artists in the social space is - open and hidden, in which a presented group of artists tries to manifest their position and presence. Is it worth talking about graffiti in pedagogy in social sciences? The author analyzes it (graffiti) which may not penetrate the structures of life of the young generation, their school, and out-of-school environments, and what does not become the source of rebellion and also a way for establishing a new type of social and educational relationship.

Saved by the Bell: A Feminist Approach to High School Architecture

<p>The years spent as high school students are some of the most formative to the development of confidence in identity, and in preparing young people to be resilient adults. The school environments in which development occurs have an imperative role to play in providing space for identity to form freely and in providing equal opportunity for students to succeed. This research will focus on understanding how architecture might provide the space for identities to form freely and how processes and spatial outcomes could encourage this development to happen equitably. This research engages feminist theory, processes and practices to increase spatial agency and identity agency for students. Encouraging the autonomy of students hopes to influence a sense of purpose and belonging to the space, and help students feel belonging within a community. The theoretical position of this research is between feminist practice and gender and space. Supporting fields of research include pedagogy and policy. Whilst each existing field is independently expansive in scope, this research explores how these fields intersect, overlap and function when applied to the context of high school architecture. A design-led methodology will inform four Pieces towards the completion of this research, each considering ‘design’ as the process, outcome and representation strategies. The first Piece, Processes, will involve the design and running of participatory workshops with students. The second Piece, Sites, will include photo analysis of existing schools to uncover what information existing architecture might be disseminating. The third Piece, Interventions, will be the design of actionable guides, posters, zines and ‘take- aways’ that share the findings of the research. The fourth and final Piece, Speculations, will include speculative concept designs that respond to the accumulated knowledge and provoke curiosity for the potential in this research area and way of practicing. The outcomes of this research, the feminist architectural processes, designs and communication, aim to better understand how to facilitate participation in architecture for identity development and therefore help equalise opportunities in education.</p>

Saved by the Bell: A Feminist Approach to High School Architecture

<p>The years spent as high school students are some of the most formative to the development of confidence in identity, and in preparing young people to be resilient adults. The school environments in which development occurs have an imperative role to play in providing space for identity to form freely and in providing equal opportunity for students to succeed. This research will focus on understanding how architecture might provide the space for identities to form freely and how processes and spatial outcomes could encourage this development to happen equitably. This research engages feminist theory, processes and practices to increase spatial agency and identity agency for students. Encouraging the autonomy of students hopes to influence a sense of purpose and belonging to the space, and help students feel belonging within a community. The theoretical position of this research is between feminist practice and gender and space. Supporting fields of research include pedagogy and policy. Whilst each existing field is independently expansive in scope, this research explores how these fields intersect, overlap and function when applied to the context of high school architecture. A design-led methodology will inform four Pieces towards the completion of this research, each considering ‘design’ as the process, outcome and representation strategies. The first Piece, Processes, will involve the design and running of participatory workshops with students. The second Piece, Sites, will include photo analysis of existing schools to uncover what information existing architecture might be disseminating. The third Piece, Interventions, will be the design of actionable guides, posters, zines and ‘take- aways’ that share the findings of the research. The fourth and final Piece, Speculations, will include speculative concept designs that respond to the accumulated knowledge and provoke curiosity for the potential in this research area and way of practicing. The outcomes of this research, the feminist architectural processes, designs and communication, aim to better understand how to facilitate participation in architecture for identity development and therefore help equalise opportunities in education.</p>

The Kids Are All Right: Designing an Earthquake-Resilient Classroom Table

<p>In the seismically active region of New Zealand the threat of earthquakes is ever-present with potential implications for residents of all ages. As school children spend a large extent of their daily lives within the classroom, it is vital that they are provided with an effective means to protect and prepare themselves for natural disasters. Through the application of a qualitative, ethnographic, and ‘research through design‘ methodological approaches, this research has informed the design of a classroom table that effectively promotes safety and resilience around seismic events. Through consultation with school students and teaching staff, typologies of existing furniture and the specific needs of classroom tables in contemporary primary school environments have been evaluated within a contemporary New Zealand school context. While the development of the design aims to be appropriate for everyday use, the primary objective is to investigate the role that furniture can play in mitigating the physical threat of seismic events on children. The central research question asks: How might furniture effectively function to mitigate the physical threat of earthquakes and aid in facilitating education regarding earthquake preparedness within the context of New Zealand’s primary schools? The functions of the resultant product output - the ‘Earthquake-Resilient Classroom Table’ - are three-fold: the design aims to provide a robust structure that physically protects children during earthquakes; enable a system that alerts students when safety procedures should be implemented; and, facilitate the education of students in earthquake safety and preparedness procedures according to established practices employed in New Zealand schools. As a pervasive means of providing immediate safety and encouraging preparedness, the proposed design outcome is a prime example in the application of alternative functions and innovative technologies in the design of contemporary furniture. The focus on earthquake safety within school environments addresses a pertinent issue that has received minimal prior investigation or addressment through design, both in New Zealand and internationally. This research aims to foster discourse within the design discipline regarding new conceptualisations of design that meet the needs of contemporary school environments, and to inspire the development of furniture designs that meet the safety needs of children in natural disasters within New Zealand and beyond.</p>

The Kids Are All Right: Designing an Earthquake-Resilient Classroom Table

<p>In the seismically active region of New Zealand the threat of earthquakes is ever-present with potential implications for residents of all ages. As school children spend a large extent of their daily lives within the classroom, it is vital that they are provided with an effective means to protect and prepare themselves for natural disasters. Through the application of a qualitative, ethnographic, and ‘research through design‘ methodological approaches, this research has informed the design of a classroom table that effectively promotes safety and resilience around seismic events. Through consultation with school students and teaching staff, typologies of existing furniture and the specific needs of classroom tables in contemporary primary school environments have been evaluated within a contemporary New Zealand school context. While the development of the design aims to be appropriate for everyday use, the primary objective is to investigate the role that furniture can play in mitigating the physical threat of seismic events on children. The central research question asks: How might furniture effectively function to mitigate the physical threat of earthquakes and aid in facilitating education regarding earthquake preparedness within the context of New Zealand’s primary schools? The functions of the resultant product output - the ‘Earthquake-Resilient Classroom Table’ - are three-fold: the design aims to provide a robust structure that physically protects children during earthquakes; enable a system that alerts students when safety procedures should be implemented; and, facilitate the education of students in earthquake safety and preparedness procedures according to established practices employed in New Zealand schools. As a pervasive means of providing immediate safety and encouraging preparedness, the proposed design outcome is a prime example in the application of alternative functions and innovative technologies in the design of contemporary furniture. The focus on earthquake safety within school environments addresses a pertinent issue that has received minimal prior investigation or addressment through design, both in New Zealand and internationally. This research aims to foster discourse within the design discipline regarding new conceptualisations of design that meet the needs of contemporary school environments, and to inspire the development of furniture designs that meet the safety needs of children in natural disasters within New Zealand and beyond.</p>